Farm bill expiration leaves farmers guessing

Farmers are working without a farm bill after a nine-month extension on the last one expired Sept. 30.

Farmers are still out in the fields, but they are working with a growing set of unknowns.

Last year at this time, the upcoming presidential election seemed largely to blame for Congressional inaction on the farm bill. This year, Iowa farmer Jeff Longnecker sees no obvious explanation for the prolonged partisan bickering.

"Once again we do not have a farm bill in place," Longnecker said. "I don’t know what’s going on there. It’s like they’re both just trying to see how long they can stretch this out and not come up with an answer."

Longnecker says farm programs can influence many of his business decisions. Without clear federal policies in place, he and other farmers are left guessing. House and Senate negotiators have yet to start hammering out a new bill, and Senate leaders say they won’t support another extension.

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The farm bill is, once again, entering a critical stretch. As was the case last year, the current law expires at the end of September. There’s no election to dissuade elected officials from tackling the major piece of agriculture and nutrition policy—but Congress does have a pretty full plate, with the crisis in Syria, immigration reform and a measure to continue funding federal government programs all set to come to a head.

With Congress in its August recess, the farm bill is stalled and many are pessimistic about getting a new bill passed before the current extension expires on Sept. 30. Still, farm country legislators aren’t exactly giving up hope.

Republican Illinois Congressman Aaron Schock was asked about the farm bill at a town hall style meeting in in his district this week.He said that he thinks the most likely outcome is that the House will pass a “food stamp bill,” to go along with a agriculture portion it passed in June. That could put the farm bill back on track.

U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri says she will spend much of the August congressional recess talking about the farm bill, which is hung up in a legislative impasse.

Hopes are dim for compromise on the legislation after the Senate approved a five-year plan regulating farm programs and food stamps, but the House signed off on a bill dealing only with farm programs. McCaskill says Republican efforts to make sharp cuts to the food stamp program are holding up the farm bill, which she says is unfair to farmers in Missouri.